Outdoor service draws big crowd to St. Peter’s

Published 8:00 am Sunday, May 3, 2020

“I am really surprised we have this many people,” said George Reeves, an usher at St. Peter’s Catholic Church, as he scanned the scores of people setting up their lawn chairs — with face masks and appropriate distance between family groups intact — in front of the St. Peter’s Catholic Church Rectory. “Saturday Mass is usually a smaller group.”

Maybe it was the relaxing of the stay-at-home rules, perhaps it was the picture-perfect weather. Either way, the faithful came out to celebrate their faith during an outdoor Mass Saturday afternoon.

On Friday, Diocese of Lafayette Bishop Douglas Deshotel announced that churches would be allowed to hold outdoor Mass this weekend subject to the restrictions of Gov. John Bel Edwards’ orders designed to fight the COVID-19 outbreak in the state.

Deshotel left the decision of whether to hold Mass or not up to the individual priests at each church, especially given the short notice before the Mass was to be held.

At St. Peter’s, Fr. William Blanda decided to hold two outdoor services — the first on Saturday afternoon and another at 9:30 a.m. today.

Aside from the cool breeze and beautiful blue sky, Blanda also pointed to another perk of the outdoor setting.

“The sound system out here is much better than the one indoors,” he said, getting some small chuckles from the crowd.

There were also some minor allowances that had to be made to make the setting and the rituals of the church work within the social distancing framework.

“We will come to you for communion,” Blanda said. “So just wait in your seats and we will make our way to you. And we will not be placing the host on the tongue. We will place it in your palm.”

The regimen also required other concessions from the parishioners.

“I know after the Mass, you have not seen people in a while and we would like to stay and talk, but instead we ask that you disperse and go on your way,” Blanda said.

The diocese also released information last week in preparation for the transition to Phase I of the state’s plan to restart Louisiana’s economy. Under those guidelines, churches would hold Mass indoors, but at 25 percent of the occupancy of the church. At St. Peter, that capacity is 1,200, meaning only 300 people would be allowed to worship indoors at a time, as long as proper spacing could be maintained.

Those guidelines, if all goes according to plan, will go into effect after May 15.